Hello Sagamite ,

I could use some help and advice from you. I have a B.sc in Business Administration with a Second Class Lower Division (2:2). I want to do my M.sc in either Information Technology, Management Information System, Advanced Computer Systems or Computer Science. Since i dont have a first degree in computer science, i have dedicated myself to acquiring I.T knowledge by undergoing trainings and certifications at globally recognised instituitions like NIIT and APTECH. I am an Oracle 10g Certified DBA (OCP), a Mikrotik Certified Network Administrator (MTCNA) and am about to write the Computer Professionals Examinations 1 (CPE1) of the Computer Professionals Of Nigeria (CPN). The CPN is the equivalent of the British Computer Society (BCS). What do you think are my chances and what universities do you recommend ? I have a scholarship so funding is not an issue. Thank you and God bless.

Thanks Sagamite,

Actually, I just made a preliminary search of business schools that offer Msc with an IT slant and I've found a couple of courses in Uni. of Lancaster's Management School. Also, somone just told me that the Manchester Business School does a course called Msc. Business IT, even though I hv'nt been able to access their website !

Please advise me on the above in terms of reputation, employability, etc in light of your earlier post regarding Strathclyde.

Hope it aint too much to ask?

Ciao!

Samir

Many universities will take you on just search

NiceSabil:

Thanks Sagamite,

Actually, I just made a preliminary search of business schools that offer Msc with an IT slant and I've found a couple of courses in Uni. of Lancaster's Management School. Also, somone just told me that the Manchester Business School does a course called Msc. Business IT, even though I hv'nt been able to access their website !

Please advise me on the above in terms of reputation, [b]employabilit[/b]y, etc in light of your earlier post regarding Strathclyde.

Hope it aint too much to ask?

Ciao!

employability is large a personal thing not necessarily the reputation of your school, that can only take you to a certain extent, the rest depends on your experience, skills and character or achievement!

NiceSabil:

Thanks Sagamite,

Actually, I just made a preliminary search of business schools that offer Msc with an IT slant and I've found a couple of courses in Uni. of Lancaster's Management School. Also, somone just told me that the Manchester Business School does a course called Msc. Business IT, even though I hv'nt been able to access their website !

Please advise me on the above in terms of reputation, employability, etc in light of your earlier post regarding Strathclyde.

Hope it aint too much to ask?

Ciao!

Honestly mate, I don't think there is much to choose between them.

All 3 I would not regard as top 30 for MBA globally (despite Lancaster being 24 in FT this year), but they all fall within top 100 though. I think in terms of global MBA rankings, it is more reasonable to bunch them as:

Top 13
Top 30
Top 100 (and this is where all 3 schools fall in my eyes^{note: very subjective point})

So I really think there is really not much to rate between them. It is like asking me which Premiership club is better between Bolton, Blackburn and West Ham. Playing for any of the 3 regularly will get you into Super Eagles, none would be seen as superior like in the case of if you played for Manchester United regularly. Not much difference between the 3 in my opinion.

Although the Stratclyde and Scottish stuff still stands. Just look at cost and the course content to shape your decision.

Thanks Sagamite,

I'll follow your advice about the Scottish school. It seems like you said, that it may have a competitive adv. over the English ones. Im checking it and the city (Glasgow) out and I see that the Silicon Glen is situated there. Maybe this will sway me there as I believe the IT industry @ Glen should provide internship and job opportunities for students.

Anyway, I'll keep you posted,

ciao

hey sagamite, thanks for sharing your opinions and great effort for doing the league table. Btw, care sharing the top 13 & top 30 global mba you are refering to? I am interested in taking an mba in the future. Thanks.

engine15:

hey sagamite, thanks for sharing your opinions and great effort for doing the league table. Btw, care sharing the top 13 & top 30 global mba you are refering to? I am interested in taking an mba in the future. Thanks.

Hmm, this is a very very subjective assessment and plainly my opinion.

I am actually going to go back on my word and change it to Top 14 as I struggle to choose between the last 2.

Top 14
Harvard                       [US]
Wharton (UPenn)          [US]
London                        [UK]
Stanford                      [US]
Booth (Chicago)            [US]
INSEAD                       [France]
Sloan (MIT)                  [US]
Columbia                      [US]
IE                               [Spain]
Kellogg (Northwestern) [US]
IMD                             [Switzerland]
IESE (Navarra)              [Spain]
Stern (NYU) [US]
Tuck (Dartmouth)          [US]

Additional 16 (for Top 30)
Ross (Michigan)                       [US]
Johnson (Cornell)                     [US]
Said (Oxford)                          [UK]
Judge (Cambridge)                   [UK]
ESADE                                    [Spain]
Fuqua (Duke)                          [US]
Haas (UC Berkeley)                   [US]
HEC Paris                                [France]
Yale                                       [US]
Australia Business School           [Australia]
Anderson (UCLA)                       [US]
Darden (Virginia)                       [US]
Kenan-Flagler (UNC-Chapel Hill)    [US]
Tepper (Carnegie-Mellon)            [US]
Goizueta (Emory)                       [US]
Cranfield                                  [UK]

Spambot palava keeps on deleting this guy's post.

samir101ng:

Hi Sagamite,

I am very interested in doing an M.sc in Information Techonology, Advanced Computer Systems, Management I.T, Management Information System etc. at a UK university. I have a B.sc in Business Administration with lower second class honours (2:2). However, i have extensive experience & global certifications in I.T. I am an Oracle Certified Database Administrator (OCP), a Mikrotik Certified Network Administrator (MTCNA) & am about to write the Computer Professional Examinations I (CPEI) of the Computer Professionals of Nigeria (CPN) which is the nigerian equivalent of the British Computer Society (BCS). I know i dont have a first degree in Computer Science but i believe i have sufficient experience & knowlegde to handle the course. What do you think are my chances of getting an admission and can you please help me in providing the top schools with good computer science/I.T departments and graduate employability. Money is not an option as i am being sponsored by my state. Thanks.

Samir,

I wouldn't know the criteria for admission, you will have to ask each school.

And I don't take subject league tables that seriously. It is inferior to overall league tables except the school is exceptionally good in that subject.

For Computer Science, Cambridge and Imperial are the exceptionals.

If you cannot get or are not interested in getting into either, then use the league tables on page 1 to see which unis offer the course and judge based on how high unis are on the table.

thanks for the mba list. Anyway can i go straight for mba after my bachelor? All the mba program u have listed need at least 2 years of working exp right?

Yes, you can.

But you are likely going to only get a chance to do such at non-renowned MBA schools, not the top MBA schools.

To get entry into the top MBA schools straight from undergrad happens, but in very very very very very rare occassions, for only people at the calibre level of the likes of Michael Porter.

Even the 2 year experience minimum is meant for only those that have worked at (a handful of) exceptional places like Mckinsey, Bain, BCG or the Prime Ministers' Strategy Delivery Unit where you are able to demontrate unmatched Thought Leadership, impact and responsibility under a short period of time.

Hi Sagamite,
Pls I'd like ur opinion on d MSc Financial Forecasting and Investment programme offered by d Univeristy of Glasgow.

Then what's d probability of gettin employment in scotland afterwards,
Thanks

likeithot:

Hi Sagamite,
Pls I'd like your opinion on d MSc Financial Forecasting and Investment programme offered by d Univeristy of Glasgow.

Then what's d probability of gettin employment in scotland afterwards,
Thanks

I wouldn't know anything about the particular course but the table and the Scottish employment perculiarities aforementioned applies.

I think by far the best course of study in the UK is PPE at Oxford.

I have been around many products of this course from Oxford in my life.

In the workplace, I have seen them in high places, worked with them (colleagues and bosses) and interviewed by them far too frequently to the point of surreality.

There was a time in 2009 that 1/3 of the Cabinet members of the UK Government were PPE grads. I mean 1/3 of about 30 people in the top positions in ONE COUNTRY studied THE SAME course in THE SAME university.

It is so ridiculous that a time I had an interview for a job with a financial firm, my interviewer was a SVP of the firm. ^{After SVP it is EVP(at this level, one is on the board or leading an SBU) then President (normally less than 3 in any blue chip and are CFOs/COOs) and then CEO, so the guy was pretty high up.} My brother called me to ask how the interview went, and I told him that it was with an SVP that was a PPE grad from Oxford, in his early 40s and pretty smart. My brother said "Hmm, he is underachiever then", I was first puzzled and replied "No, he is a SVP" until I got the joke and he laughed and said normally most PPE excel too much that anything short of being one of the top 6 leaders in the firm at that age is an underachievement. 

Even our famous Bayo Ogunlesi that led the Private Equity firm that bought Gatwick Airport is a product of PPE in Oxford.

So is Bill Clinton, David Cameron, John Kuffour (ex Ghanian president), Anne Widdecombe, Rupert Murdoch, Ian Davis (Global head of Mckinsey) . . . .

Here is a list of other highly successful and notable people that studied PPE at Oxford.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Notable_people_with_PPE_degrees_from_Oxford

@engine15

Here is an example of a guy without even an undergrad that was admitted into HBS.

It is up for debate whether it is the quality of work experience (Deputy Chief of Staff to the US President) or nepotism (Shagger of US President's daughter) or HBS jumping at an opportunity to be affiliated with someone that is inevitably likely to be successful from exploiting the connections he has built up, so people would say/think the success was nurtured by Harvard.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Blake_Gottesman

wow. . .harvard is so commercialize. Then the guy got an impressive resume. Thanx for the info.

Hello House ,

I need your valued advise once more. Can you pls advice me on good destinations for a postgraduate diploma in Management for an HND holder in the UK?

Counting on y'all as usual.

Ciao

There has always been the debate about comparisons between UK and US universities. It is quite hard to make comparison as they have different funding structures (private vs public), different entry barriers/inequalities (mainly rich people can enter Yale, in US in-state candidates get into the good schools in their state more easily), different Academic rigorousness style (UK more specialized, US diverse studies), quality distribution, share number of high quality unis (US has a lot), grade inflation (US), different ranking styles (UK - All inclusive UG & PG, US - diff. for UG, another for PG based on subject area) etc.

But based on my anecdoctal observations, these is how I group and peer the Top Unis on academic quality of average undergrad students. I hope it helps anyone making comparisons across the Atlantic:

In a Class of their Own
Harvard, Stanford, MIT, Yale, Princeton, Cambridge, Oxford

Star
Caltech, Chicago, Columbia, Uni Pennsylvania, UC Berkeley, LSE, Imperial

Hot Group 1a
Brown, Cornell, Dartmouth, Duke, UCLA, Michigan, Northwestern, Johns Hopkins, UCL, Bristol, Warwick, Edinburgh, KCL, St Andrews, Durham

Hot Group 1b
NYU, Southern California, Vanderbilt, Carnegie Mellon, Wisconsin-Madison, Georgetown, Virginia, UIllinois (Urbana-Champaign), UTexas-Austin, Washington Uni (St Louis), Rochester, Tulane, Notre Dame, Emory, Rice, GeorgiaTech, Tufts, UC San Diego, UNC Chapel Hill and probably another 20 more US unis, York, Bath, Manchester, Nottingham, Sheffield, Birmingham, Southampton

Note: I have no jack clue about all these Liberal Art Colleges (ala Williams, Wesleyan, Amherst, Swarthmore, Bowdoin etc) so I have not factored them into the comparisons. Good thing though, as outside the US most people would think they are High Schools.

6 out of the 23 cabinet members of David Cameron studied PPE at Oxford.

That is roughly a quarter.

hi sagamite.ur da bomb man.thks for the valuable contributions.pls wats ur take on this;msc oils and gas accounting(its a new course) at the RGU.i figure out that i can throw in an ACCA qualification while im at it.do u think an msc plus ACCA will atttract them oil boys?im having to leave a 7digit banking job to do this but i won a fully funded scholarship so im seriously considering it.do u think its worth it?i heard RGU has quite a good rep wit oil companies.holla

hi sagamite please can u tell me how are trinity college graduates are rated in the uk. am about to start my first year in computer science .

tek1:

hi sagamite.your da bomb man.thks for the valuable contributions.pls wats your take on this;msc oils and gas accounting(its a new course) at the RGU.i figure out that i can throw in an ACCA qualification while im at it.do u think an msc plus ACCA will atttract them oil boys?im having to leave a 7digit banking job to do this but i won a fully funded scholarship so im seriously considering it.do u think its worth it?i heard RGU has quite a good rep wit oil companies.holla

I think such detailed oil and gas course questions are best directed at Debosky and Sauron as that is their field.

Maybe even jay bee, but I think engineering is more his forte.

logic101:

hi sagamite please can u tell me how are trinity college graduates  are rated in the uk. am about to start my first year in computer science .

I am assuming you meant Trinity College, Dublin?

If that is the school you mean, it is highly regarded in the UK.

Most of the major employers are well aware of the school and have high regards for students that attend the school's ability. They see it and University College Dublin as the Oxbridge of Ireland.

Although the regards for both falls more likely in Hot Group 1b.

Sagamite:

I am assuming you meant Trinity College, Dublin?

If that is the school you mean, it is highly regarded in the UK.

Most of the major employers are well aware of the school and have high regards for students that attend the schools ability. They see it and University College Dublin as the Oxbridge of Ireland.

Although the regards for both falls more likely in Hot Group 1b.

yes i was referring to tcd dublin.Thank you very much,

Hello Sagamite,

I have a friend who wants to go into education and he got an offer from Institute of Education, University of London and from University of Warwick. He is not sure of the one with a better job prospect and the one that has a higher reputation. Please could you advice him on the school to choose.

^^^
which of the universities of london?
Warwick is tops

kidonig:

Hello Sagamite,

I have a friend who wants to go into education and he got an offer from Institute of Education, University of London and from University of Warwick. He is not sure of the one with a better job prospect and the one that has a higher reputation. Please could you advice him on the school to choose.

I would say Warwick is generally a better university, with better "switch" prospects.

If your friend has no intention of switching careers in future and is dead-sure (s)he will only be in Education, then I will say IofE is better due to its reputation as strictly a specialist in the field and dedicates more focus than most universities.

I think it only offers postgrad courses and so well known internationally for its research in the field, only Oxford, Cambridge and KCL can rival it in Education courses.

Sagamite:

I would say Warwick is generally a better university, with better "switch" prospects.

If your friend has no intention of switching careers in future and is dead-sure (s)he will only be in Education, then I will say IofE is better due to its reputation as strictly a specialist in the field and dedicates more focus than most universities.

I think it only offers postgrad courses and so well known internationally for its research in the field, only Oxford, Cambridge and KCL can rival it in Education courses.

Sagamite, Thank you for your reply.
He wants to be a lecturer. He feels that Warwick has a better name in the job market. So What do you think with respects to one that wants to lecture.

kidonig:

Sagamite, Thank you for your reply.
He wants to be a lecturer. He feels that Warwick has a better name in the job market. So What do you think with respects to one that wants to lecture.

I would be surprised if any academic worth his salt in the Anglo-phone world does not know about IofE and its reputation in the field.

This is bar, of course, those in the USA who would be very ignorant of anything outside their shores. But the USA ones will also be ignorant of Warwick as well anyway.

Warwick has a far superior name in the commercial world but I am assuming in the Education world it is academics that will hire a lecturer so my first sentence above should play a role. As I said, IofE, Cambridge, Oxford and KCL are the elites I know of in Education training.

If he is going to lecture in Education (i.e. generic), I see no advantage Warwick has over IofE.

If he is going to lecture in a Quantitative subject, then Warwick might have an advantage.

The case of IofE is very similar to that of Royal Academy of Music, School of Pharmacy (UofLondon) and London Business School.

They are all postgrad focused and leaders in research.

If you want to study music, Royal Academy of Music is world class and an esteemed institution only matched by Cambridge, Oxford and KCL.

If you want to study pharmacy, School of Pharmacy (UofLondon) is top notched only matched by Manchester, KCL and Nottingham.

If you want to study business/finance, London Business School is world class and an esteemed institution that is really unmatched in the UK, LSE and then Oxford follow.